MCA talks to Anderson Kohler and Arno Broodryk of WEG about the expansion and upgrading of the company’s facility in Robertsham, South Africa, for the manufacture of the WEG range of medium voltage (MV) switchgear, MV soft starters, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and containerised solutions.
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Also helping to maximise WEG’s manufacturing efficiency on the sheet metal side are three new 150 t bending brakes.
“Localisation is a big differentiator for us,” begins Arno Broodryk, the mechanical supervisor for WEG. “We have been manufacturing motor control centres (MCCs) and distribution boards (DBs) here in Robertsham, Johannesburg for many years. These two product ranges remain our flagship, but we are now in the process of adding manufacturing processes in order to raise quality standards to the highest international benchmarks, extend the locally manufactured product range and to ensure we meet growing demand across Africa,” he tells MCA.
As part of the company’s offering, WEG also manufactures customised and containerised solutions that are populated using the MCC and industrial DB switchgear and controls manufactured in the Robertsham factory on the South side of Johannesburg. “We now have several additional product lines that are being locally produced. We used to focus on low voltage (LV) switchgear for this facility, but we are now set up to also manufacture WEG medium voltage (MV) switchgear, which we used to import from Brazil.
“We have brought in manufacturing technology to do this MV work locally, and this includes WEG’s range of MV soft starters. Coming soon, we also intend to start manufacturing WEG battery energy storage systems (BESS) to support the localisation of the renewable energy infrastructure in South Africa and across the continent,” adds Anderson Kohler, the general senior manager of the Robertsham facility.
For the time being, variable speed/variable frequency inverter (VSDs/VFDs) will still be imported directly from Brazil for use in both panel mounted and containerised electrical control centres. “The demand for VSDs continues to grow and we now have dedicated factories in Brazil and China that we can access for both panel mounted and freestanding VSDs, which we can incorporate into our MCCs to more effectively and efficiently control motors of any size,” adds Kohler.
Also accelerating over the past few years is WEG’s E-house offering. “We moved into a premises in Heidelberg back in 2018 and we have been investing in upgrading the facility ever since,” continues Broodryk.
“The largest E-House we have made to date is 35 m long and 19 m wide, so the ‘sheds’ we build them in have to be massive,” he says, adding that the Heidelburg facility also now has a large band saw to cut the structural steel beams, and sandblasting and spray painting booths.
“Our E-houses are mostly fitted with the switchgear needed for substations, but we can include MCCs and it’s great to also have the option of including locally manufactured MV switchgear. In addition, transformers are almost always required, which can be locally manufactured and supplied by the WEG transformer factory in Heidelberg,” he tells MCA.
Panel manufacturing investments
Turning attention back to the Robertsham facility, Kohler says that the biggest current investment is in the sheet metal division. “Within the last year, we have installed two laser cutting machines – 3.0 kW and 4.0 kW – which give us far better flexibility, accuracy and production efficiency. These have now replaced the hydraulic punching machines we used to use to create the cavities for mounting panel components.
“Using the incorporated nesting software, these laser cutting machines help us to reduce material waste, which is another ESG advantage, and from a manufacturing efficiency perspective there is no longer any downtime for changing the punching dyes on the hydraulic machines,” he explains.
Also helping to maximise the manufacturing efficiency on the sheet metal side are three new 150 t bending brakes: “The quality of the parts made on these new machines is now much better, while the production efficiency based in the number of parts processed per hour has also improved significantly,” Kohler adds.
“So panel manufacturing is now being done using less energy, producing less scrap, and, because the tolerances are much better, final assembly is also much more efficient,” he says, adding that they are also easier to operate. On the punching side, Broodryk comments that, for punching the copper conducting bars, WEG has bought a punching machine with seven dies that can accommodate all five different hole sizes used and all trim to length requirements. “Our process involves the full design and manufacture of complete enclosures, including the main, the dropper bars and the incomer,” he says.
“Right now, we are also waiting for our new powder coating spray booth, which will allow us to apply different colours in parallel. We have reduced the length of this booth, which reduces the footprint, the heating time and gas usage, all while making the coating process more efficient,” he says.
Also to improve the facility’s ESG performance, Kohler adds that the diesel forklifts used have been replaced by two fully electric equivalents. “ESG is all about being more energy and material efficient by replacing old technologies. By replacing the diesel forklift for two electric ones, we further reduce our carbon emissions.
We are targeting everything we can to transform this facility into a benchmark operation, not just locally but to also match what we are achieving globally,” Kohler assures.
Turning attention to the electrical side, Broodryk says that a new harness workstation is now speeding up cabling processes. “We are now able to use one machine to cut to size, strip and crimp the electrical wiring, which saves a lot of time,” he says. And across the facility, Lean Manufacturing principles are being adopted. The principles of lean manufacturing are streamlining assembly activity on the shop floor and reducing waiting times due to missing components,” Kohler adds.
“Slowly but surely we are adopting state-of-the art technologies of our parent company, which has implemented thousands of procedures to make the manufacture of WEG products more efficient with better quality, while significantly reducing their carbon footprint,” he says.
The transformation is also being coupled with skills development: “As part of the investment in new machines and technologies, we also invest in getting operators trained on each and every machine. We aim to have some crossover, so for the laser and bending machines, for example, we have several trained employees who can all operate both of these as well as other machines.
“The whole shop floor has been trained to use the Lean Manufacturing Tools, and they are all now embracing it. The atmosphere is a happy one, and from the KPIs we use to highlight on-time, quality or late delivery issues, we can see the positive effects of these changes.
“Most importantly, in terms of delivery and quality, we have happy clients – and happy clients are very good for business,” Kohler concludes.
